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Dust particles emitted from deserts and semi-arid lands in northern China cause particulate pollution that increases the burden of disease particularly for urban population in East Asia. The stable carbon isotopes (delta C-13) of carbonates in soils and dust aerosols in northern China were investigated. We found that the delta C-13 of carbonates in surface soils in northern China showed clearly the negative correlation (R-2 = 0.73) with Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite-derived NDVI, we predicted the regional distribution of delta C-13 of soil carbonates in deserts, sandy lands, and steppe areas. The predictions show the mean delta C-13 of -0.4 +/- 0.7 parts per thousand in soil carbonates in Taklimakan Desert and Gobi Deserts, and the isotope values decrease to -3.3 +/- 1.1 parts per thousand in sandy lands. The increase in vegetation coverage depletes C-13 in soil carbonates, thus the steppe areas are predicted by the lowest delta C-13 levels (-8.1 +/- 1.7 parts per thousand). The measurements of atmospheric dust samples at eight sites showed that the Asian dust sources were well assigned by the C-13 mapping in surface soils. Predicting C-13 in large geographical areas with fine resolution offers a cost-effective tracer to monitor dust emissions from sandy lands and steppe areas which show an increasing role in Asian dust loading driven by climate change and human activities. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.